Ya i had an atari... a coleco, and a nintendo... Im sure theres a few of you out there that have no idea what those are..

Do kids actually make their own fun anymore? Play in the dirt? Climb trees?

Let us reminisce for a moment... IF you will...

Post something you did to make your own fun when you were a child...

I don't care if You're 30 or 70... think back to some of your earliest memories. When you made your own entertainment...

Back when mom and dad said.... OK, enough TV, games... Get the hell outside, you need some fresh air...

I remember way back when i took Karate, me and the boys liked to pretend we were ninja's... When the sun went down we would go on "impossible
missions" which involved scaling the backyard fences to see how many backyards we could conquer without getting busted.

We'd get a nickle or a quarter... even a penny, and a hammer... and beat the crap out of the coin until it was so flat it could be trimmed into a
nifty little ninja star with very sharp edges... all you'd need was a flat head screwdriver to shape it.

They would actually work too... toss em at anything wooden, a fence or a tree... and they would stick... damn right!!

Sigh... those were the days

Im sure kids these days would call that crazy or stupid... but when i was young that was real fun!

When I was younger we lived near a creek and a golf course so we spent a lot of time in those places. My Dad converted an old shed into a playhouse so
I was in there often.
When I was a young teenager we lived near a small river and in the woods so a lot of time was spent in both of those places.
My folks were already in their 50's practically when I came around and they didn't agree with or permit a lot of TV.
Just TV in the evenings, mainly, after dinner.
There were lots of chores to do. But, Dad more than Mom made those fun. Mom's chores were not fun to me. Cooking, cleaning, and all that housework
jazz! LOL

I lived away from town on the small lake shore property as a kid. We had well water so it was unlimited and free.
My Dad built for me a huge sand box about 30x30 feet and a few feet deep. I played in it all the time, I would take the garden hose and jam it into
the middle of the sand box and make rivers and towns ect. Set up army men and tonka trucks until I had a large section of the sand box developed into
little towns with motes and castles and dam's. Then I would destroy it all and start over the next day. I am sure you could still dig up buried
soliders in that sand box.

Also if I was playing inside which was rare i would be playing with Lego....I loved me the lego as a child.

a reply to: Akragon
When I was young, political correctness had not been invented, and boys were still allowed to play with toy soldiers.
I had a mixed collection, including several sets of the Airfix models; there were "guards" in red (or pink) uniforms, some in sentry boxes; a highland
regiment, an "Eighth army" unit. There were spring-loaded cannons capable of firing matches a few inches. All these occupied a toy castle as their
barracks.
The only exception to that rule was "the brown soldiers", the Airfix set of second-world war Germans, who fought against the rest in every battle and
were never allowed to win.

Well, I remember vaguely, often sneaking out of the house in the early morning hours when I was 4-5.

My mother told me that at 2 years old she tried to tie pillows to the top of the rail of my crib so I would not climb out. never worked, apparently.
From about 3 years old, she added multiple, high locks on the inside of the front door of the house. I would get a chair and stack things on it to get
to the locks.

I remember a handyman that worked for the landlord digging in the backyard. He told me and my cousin he was digging to China. I completely believed
him. I was 4.

I would go next door where several 'old drunks' (as my mother called them) lived and they would leave the door unlocked for the last to come home. I
would sneak out of my own house, go in theirs, let out their dogs, turn on cartoons and lock the door. My mother would come and knock on the doors and
windows, I would stick my tongue out at her and not let her in. I was about 3 then.

I would cross a busy street, walk a couple of blocks to a nunnery where the nuns had taken a vow of silence. I would ring the bell and attempt to
speak to them. I was about 4 then.

Mainly, I attempted to go off on my own at every possible chance. It drove my mother insane.

I remember i liked to cut 'tiny things' out of magazines. Logos, tiny houses, flowers, suns- anything tiny and I had a huge scrapbook of tiny
things.

I loved stickers and going to buy stickers and things at the 'Hello Kitty Store'.

I had a 'chopper style' bicycle from England that I rode until I was simply too tall.

I watched some TV, but we only had 4 channels, plus the 1 Canadian station that came in fuzzily. I would cry unless I was allowed to stay awake to
watch re runs of Star trek.

Later I had an Atari. First kid in the neighborhood to get one, so 12 kids would pack into my room waiting for their turn at 'Tanks'.

I spent a little time in the school library playing 1 dimensional video games on a radio shack TRS 80 computer.

I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons.

I finally got a landline phone in my room at about 14. I loved my combination record plaeyer/double tape deck.

I spent a HUGE amount of time outside with neighborhood kids. We built things, explored places, jumped rope, tried to get into trouble whenever
possible. Dinnertime always came too early and I would ask for just another hour to go outside after.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: Akragon
When I was young, political correctness had not been invented, and boys were still allowed to play with toy soldiers.

Boys can still play with toy soldiers. Leave it to one person to ruin a nice thread.

My favorite toy was GI Joe. The one with a beard. It was one of the first toys I would bring when asked for it by name.
I had a massive collection of fancy dolls and stuffed animals, though.

I still have some of the dolls, I keep them on a shelf. One doll, was bought for me when I was 12. A Madame Alexander. I named her Estelle.- my
grandmother's name. It was a pretty penny for my mom to pay at the time. I promised I would care for the doll and never forget it. Estelle sits on
that shelf in my room today.

Reading was my greatest pleasure. Yes, I was a bit nerdy.
Climbing trees was always fun. There was a stretch of disused railway line across the field behind our old house. Spent a lot of time down there.
Climbing trees and tying ropes over the limbs that overhung the embankment. That way, you get maximum height in the middle of the swing and looking
down gets very scary.
Digging out dens as well. Little holes with branch rooves and hidden entrances to spy out of. we were gone for hours and no one ever worried what we
were up to.
Sometimes wish I could take a bag of grub, flask of coffee and a good book and go and sit up a tree now.
Someone would probably call the police nowadays.

Oh how I miss the carefree days of my youth... Why did I want to grow up so fast? Free range parenting is awesome,and actually increasingly
recommended. My kids do not have their own cell phone, or ipad. As a family we share one computer. Only this past Christmas has a game system entered
my home and it was not bought by me,but my oldest son as a gift to his younger brothers and a way to spend time with them. As I type this, my 15 year
old son is out behind our house checking the creek for baby trout and the young muskrat he spied earlier today. He is my wildest one that's only happy
outside.I'm trying so hard to raise them wild in a digital world. Back to basics is key.Although they will never really have the freedom we did.

We used to walk miles for pram wheels. You'd get word someone was getting rid of an old pramand we'd go immediately to scrounge it to make our own
truckies. Also we'd save our pocket money up for a couple of months to buy a build your own balsa glider. 32 inch wing span. Take weeks to build it,
play with it for about a week and always get bored with it and wonder what it would look like going down in flames. Silly now but fun at the time. And
don't get me started about "adapting" fireworks, not very PC for today.

Only if they have parents who don't take up "correct" stances.
I doubt that the children of Guardian-readers would be allowed to possess them. Musn't encourage aggressive attitudes.

I also had enough toy boats to make a naval battle possible, if I got the chance to fill the bath with cold water.

Hmm..I don't read that. I would say that for a boy I would buy mainly boy's toys. If they wanted a doll though, or to build a doll house, I would get
it. For my daughter, I bought her almost all fancy girls things. I am not very good at makeup and was more of a 'tomboy', so I think I even went a
little overboard on the dolls and makeup and fancy clothes I got her. I did so want her to play football though.

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